Building Your Party

The strategy for Part building in Dragon Age 2 is pretty fluid, but you will generally want a tank and a mage. The hardest decision you will have to make is whether or not to take Anders, since he’s primarily a healer. If you want to do an extra bit of damage, you can always forego the healing and just relying on healing potions. For some of the larger encounters though, his ability to buff your party and keep them upright is exceptionally helpful.

Don’t Miss Someone

It is possible to miss characters if you are not careful. If you manage to make enough money to embark on the Deep Roads expedition without doing all of the quests, you can theoretically miss out on Isabela and Fenris. You should have a full complement when Act 1 is finished, so do as many quests as you can.

Keep in Control

In the console versions, it’s tempting to just control Hawke and just leave the other party members to their own devices, but that’s a good strategy late in the game. If you don’t want to get surrounded by hordes of enemies and cut to pieces, remember to take control of your characters and move them to an advantageous position. And if you don’t have Anders in your party, it’ll keep them healed up too.

The Tank is Crucial

In Dragon Age II, the tank is the most important character in your party. When they go down, everyone else will be quickly swarmed and destroyed. With that in mind, it’s often advantageous to take a direct control of your tank (usually Aveline, but Hawke can fill this roll too) so that they are constantly healed up. It also makes it easier to draw in an enemies who might be harassing your mages and rogues.

What’s a Chokepoint

When a battle begins, try not to run straight into the middle of the room and start hacking away. Instead, direct everyone to stay in the doorway using the radial wheel (or point-and-click) and kill them as they try to force their way through the narrow chokepoint. Absent a doorway, look for an elevated position or a staircase. All of these can make for excellent defensive positions.

Find Some Combos

Take note of the effects of certain moves. An attack like the Rogue’s Pinning Shot can stagger a foe, making them vulnerable to moves like the Warrior’s Assault attack. These cross-class combos do massive damage and can be exceptionally useful when taking on large foes like ogres.

Don’t Be Afraid to Learn New Things

Early on, you will choose your specialization and a few direct abilities within that. Don’t be afraid to go through some of the other trees as well though; for instance, the evasion tree for the Rogues houses a number of excellent abilities that will allow either a dual wielder or an archer to get out of trouble fast. Take careful note of the abilities and try to include them in your build. And don’t forget that you can pick a sub-specialization at level 7 and 14!

Set Some Tactics

Early on, most of your tactics are cover for you; but as the game progresses, there will be more and more abilities that are not accounted for in your character’s tactical tree. If you want them using cool character specific abilities like Ensnare, go and create a command for it. This is also a useful way to set up if/then situations for cross-class combos.